The Edge of The Knife
by a.pens.name
Summary: Spoilers. Jack has a plan to bring back Claire, but after everything begins to fall to pieces and lives hang in the balance, it all rests on the edge of The Knife. Chapter 9 Up. An escape is planned and a new discovery is made on the island.
1. A Plan

A/N: Yes, yes, yes, I will finish my other fic. I have half a chapter left to write and I _know_ I could wait to write this till I finished that one but… I don't want to, so there. Hah! Anywho, this will be quite **AU**, as I make no claim to knowing what will happen in any future new episodes as I hate spoiling surprises for myself. It would be cool if it turned out this way, though…

"Jack, no, you can't…" Kate said with frustration as she stepped over a stone, following Jack in circles around the camp as he grabbed various objects, shoving them deep into a rucksack.

"There isn't another alternative." Jack began with equal frustration, still keeping a step ahead of Kate, "Locke and Boone aren't back yet and if we wait any longer for them we'll never catch up to _him_." He practically hissed the last word. Kate's eyes wandered to the side of his face where a large, purple and red bump had started to swell under the cut that had been there yesterday. Jack had reason to be angry, she understood that, but he didn't have to be so foolhardy about it.

"You can wait another day! I want to find Claire just as much as you do, but the trail's been washed away!" She rubbed her forehead in exasperation, "If you leave now than at least I'm coming with you. You aren't doing this alone…"

Bending over to grab a few medicine bottles, Jack shook his head, "Kate, how many times are we going to talk about this?"

"It's _dangerous_, Jack. You saw what they did to Charlie, what they were going to do, they'll do it to _you_!" Kate tried to step in front of Jack again, but he turned away and headed in a different direction. By now, most of the cave camp had started to pretend like they weren't listening again, but Kate knew they could hear.

Jack said nothing in reply and slung the sack over his shoulder, "It doesn't matter."

"Doesn't matter? Jack!" Kate was almost yelling now. Why was he being such a stubborn ass? Did he _want_ to die? "I'm not letting you leave."

"Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot you can do to stop me."

"Want to bet?" She crossed her arms defiantly, although she knew he was right.

Jack dropped the sack and raised his voice, "Yeah, actually, I-"

"SHUT UP!"

Kate and Jack froze, as did the rest of the listening camp, and speechlessly turned their heads to the one who'd yelled.

"Charlie?" Kate asked cautiously. No one had heard him say a thing since yesterday at the bonfire, and then suddenly he was yelling loud enough for anyone within a one mile radius to hear. It was almost frightening.

"I'm going with you, Jack." Charlie stated bluntly and it was then that Kate noticed that he too had a backpack on, zipped, and ready.

_Were they _all _loosing their minds???_

"Charlie, you can't go, not after… you just can't go!" Kate finished lamely with aggravation and then turned to Jack pointedly, "_Right_, Jack?" He had to agree, he was a doctor for crying out loud!

There was a long pause of silence as Jack and Charlie stared the other in the eye.

"He's coming." Jack finally said, keeping his gaze set and noticeably away from Kate's direction.

"_What?_" Kate uttered in disbelief and stamped in front of Jack, "Look, if he's going then you can't leave me behind. I can track, remember? If I get stuck here, I'll just find you. Either way I'm coming." Folding her arms, she stood her ground in a manner that would make any true army general proud, "I want to help find Claire, Jack. Stop treating me like a kid, I can handle it."

Jack paused uncomfortably longer that time and didn't meet Kate's eyes. He just stared at the ground and then off into the distance as Kate held her ground.

"Fine." He answered finally and then spoke to both her and Charlie, "We leave in half an hour, be here." Turning around, he went off away from the group, stopping to talk to Michael.

Kate sat down with a thump, rubbing the palms of her hands across her temples, trying to relax to no avail.

"He's not trying to be an arse, you know." Charlie muttered from nearby as he sat down.

"Could've fooled me." Kate shook her head, "I haven't fought that much with anyone since I moved out of Washington."

Charlie shrugged and walked away, "Don't forget to pack."

That would be difficult, she'd packed last night.

--------------------

"So, do you think you can do it?" Jack asked as he folded back up a piece of lined legal paper.

"I dunno, man, it's pretty basic design, but the quantity... When's the deadline?" Michael took the paper and shoved it in the pocket of his jeans.

"Tomorrow could work, but tonight would be best. I'm also going to need the people by then, too. I could try to round some up, but I don't think I'm very popular with most of the people I need right now, you know?"

"Tonight it is then and don't worry about it, I'll round them up." Michael said with a nod and added hesitantly, "I noticed you changed your mind about going alone."

Shrugging, Jack nodded, "Yeah, so?"

"Nothing." Michael said quickly, "It's just, well, I don't think you should go unprepared now, you know. I mean, you shouldn't have before, but now that you're in a group, you'll be more noticeable and if anything were to happen…"

Jack turned around and rolled his eyes with exasperation, "You sound like Kate. Doesn't anyone think I might just know what I'm doing?"

"Of course we do, Jack. She's probably just worried, after seeing what happened to Charlie and everything… I can't even imagine what that must've been like for both of you." Michael finished quietly, "Take one of Locke's knives with you, okay? Just in case."

Jack turned back around and sighed, "Sorry, I'm just… stressed. I'll grab one before I leave." He shrugged the sack further on his shoulder and turned around to leave.

"Hey, man, good luck."

"Thanks."

------------------

Jack walked up to Locke's knife suitcase cautiously and clicked the lid open and glanced around, like he expected sirens or lights to go off any second. Finally, he looked down and eyed each one while trying to remember everything he knew about knives, which wasn't much. What he needed was something that could multi-task; heal as well as defend, something small, but balanced and well-formed, something like…

He picked one up and held it lightly in his hand. It had hardly any weight to it and seemed almost to float in his palm. The ridges running up the knife seemed to fit his hand perfectly as he closed his fingers around the hilt. Even the balance was good considering the awkward way he was holding it.

"Mr. Locke's never used that knife before."

Jack almost dropped the knife as he spun around, trying to hide the guilt from his face and wondering who'd caught him. To his surprise, Michael's kid, Walt, was staring up at him curiously.

"Says he was saving it for somethin' special, but he never said what." Walt looked from the knife to Jack and back again in a thoughtful way that, had Jack not felt so guilty about getting caught in the situation in the first place, would have made him laugh, "But I don't think he'd mind if you borrowed it."

"Err, thanks." Jack stuck the knife in his belt loop without bothering to look at the rest. He hadn't expected to be caught rummaging through Locke's things, especially by a ten-year old kid, and it was making him feel rather uncomfortable. Moving away, he walked back to where he'd left Charlie and Kate surprised, and a little disappointed, to see them both there and ready.

"Alright, let's go." Jack said, trying to sound as courageous as he could, but as he said the words a tingle went up his spine and he shuddered. Everything would go fine now that he was prepared…he hoped.


	2. Recruiting

A/N: Much thanks to FrodoLijactress, Evermore, JaimeLeigh, Purple Sky, and mfkngst. I appreciate the feedback!

"Come on, man, I need your help." Michael leaned against one of the posts holding up Sawyer's beach lean-to. This conversation was not going nearly as smoothly as he would've liked and he still had most of the actual labor left to do if he was going to finish the project in time. "Three minutes is all I'm asking."

"Oh, darn," Sawyer began sarcastically, his eyes hidden under rosy-orange tinted sunglasses, "I'm afraid I just don't think I could fit that in. Pretty busy today…"

"I'll be sure to tell everyone that when they start asking why Jack, Kate, and Charlie never came back." Michael retorted and turned to leave, sick of wasting his time there when he had less than enough as it was.

Sawyer's glasses slid down his nose and his eyes narrowed as he glanced up at Michael, "What the 'ell are you talking about?"

Michael smiled slightly before turning back around and said, "Well, I'd be happy to tell you, but I guess you just don't have the space in your calendar right now."

"Lookit that, it seems I've got all the time in the world now." Sawyer said and slid up into a sitting position and gestured to the seat next to him as he pulled off his sunglasses.

"Well, I'll be…" Michael said with mildly suppressed cynicism as he took the seat.

"So?" Sawyer asked with little interest, but Michael knew he had him nearly hooked now.

"Jack, Kate, and Charlie went into the forest to get Claire. Now, Jack has a plan, but-"

"Why am I not surprised?" Sawyer snorted, but Michael ignored him.

"_But_, it needs manpower if it's going to work. The more help I can get the better. That is where you come in; though even with your help it'll still be risky."

"Uh huh. So, you expect me to throw myself into some plan I don't know anything about that could possibly involve puttin' myself in some kind of mortal peril all to help _Jack_?" Sawyer chuckled lightly, sliding back on his shades.

"Jack, Kate, Charlie, Claire, and anyone else these psychos are going to mess with in the future, yeah." Michael paused and shook his head, "Look, I know there's some bad blood between you and Jack, but are you really going to let that be the deciding factor in the safety or three other people? It's four lives that'll hang over your head if anything happens because you didn't help, not just one. Think about that." He stood up and walked away over towards another man on the beach as Sawyer watched him go.

He picked up Watership Down from next to his chair and flicked it open, very determined to ignore Michael's parting words. What did he know, anyway? Nothing, that's what. Michael would get enough help; there were enough 'nice', stupid people to follow him, so Sawyer's absence wouldn't even be noticed. Unless of course there were other people smart enough to say no, but he doubted that would happen.

Glancing over the top of his book at Michael he noticed that the guy he was talking to looked just as skeptical as Sawyer, if not more so.

_It's four lives that'll hang over your head…Think about that._

He groaned and threw his book into the sand next to him and stood up, already regretting what he was going to do.

------------------

Sawyer took a deep breath and settled his nerves. He was not looking forward to what he had to do at all, but there was no backing out; his mind was set.

It was now or never…he took a step into the clearing and looked around. Walking past the others, who for the most part ignored him, he stepped around a corner and into the cave.

Sayid jumped when he saw him and scooted back ever so slightly, eyes watching Sawyer like some kind of cornered dog deciding whether to make a run for it or attack. At the moment, it looked like almost any action on Sawyer's part would sway him to the latter of the two.

"I'm gonna make this quick, alright?" Sawyer didn't even bother to sit down as he spoke or wait for a reply, "I know you talked to that French woman when you were out there." He waved his hand at the jungle, "All I want to know is what she told you about _them_."

Sayid looked around Sawyer at the cave opening and the back into his face, "I have no idea what you are talking about-"

"Bull."

Sayid paused and then looked at the ground for a moment, "Why?"

"Because Kate, Charlie, and Jack are out there hunting them down as we speak. If she knows anything, if she could help, things would be a hell of a lot easier."

"I knew about that, I could hear them from in here." Sayid said quietly, "But I don't think she'd help."

"Well, not if no one asks her she won't." Sawyer said pointedly, "And there's only one person I can think of who even knows where to find her…"

Sayid shook his head, "Even if I could find the way back there and get through the traps surrounding it _and_ find her still there, she'd never agree. It would not help."

"Fine. Sawyer shrugged and turned around and then looked over his shoulder, "Maybe it could've helped, but we'll just never know now, will we? You just stay here and keep telling yourself you made the right choice. Me, I'm off to find Michael." Having said his piece, he turned his head back and walked out, leaving Sayid in silent surprise behind.

--------------------

Jack wasn't running this time, but instead carefully retracing his steps down the path he'd taken with Kate before. The slowness of their speed was almost driving him out of his mind, but he knew that if he got lost then more time would be wasted than they had. For this to work out, he knew where he had to get before the sun went down.

Kate and Charlie were following silently behind him, Kate warily eyeing the forest around them as Charlie kept his focus forward. None of them had spoken a single word since leaving the camp, each wrapped up in their own thoughts. Even Jack was having troubles focusing on the trail as they went; his mind was tumbling over so many other things.

Like Kate and Charlie. He'd never been sure of his plan's success before, but hadn't really cared when it'd been just him. He was stupid for not figuring that Charlie would insist on coming, but why Kate had gone and involved herself too was frustrating to him.

Their safety was his responsibility; the plan could not fail now. If anything happened to either of them, Jack wasn't sure how he'd be able to live with it.

He paused, glancing at the ground and the over at Kate, "Was this where we split?"

She looked around for a moment and then nodded, "I think so. So we're going left then?"

Jack shook his head and said quietly, "Right."

Kate's eyebrow rose slightly, "We didn't go left before, Jack, Locke and Boone did. Don't we want to find them?"

"No. We're going right." He said and headed off the all too familiar path, glancing back as Kate sighed and followed him. Charlie paused for a moment hesitantly and than took a firm step following Kate, his fingers closing towards his palms.

They walked in silence a little longer before Kate interrupted, "Are you planning on explaining yourself anytime soon or are we just supposed to follow you on blind faith?"

"You didn't have to follow me at all." Jack muttered and Charlie hung back a little, not wanting to get in the middle of the tension he could feel building between them.

Kate ignored him and continued prodding, "How can we help you if we don't even know what you're going to do out here?"

"You could trust me; that would be _nice_." Jack said sarcastically and Kate opened her mouth to retaliate.

"Shh!" Charlie hissed behind them, "You're going to wake the whole bloody forest up."

Kate closed her mouth irritably as Jack began to move faster down the familiar path. She looked up at the slivers of sky she could seen between tress. It was already mid-afternoon and she guessed the sun would be setting in roughly four or five hours.

Jack had noticed, too, which was why he'd picked up the pace of the group. If he could just get there in time, it would all work out once he left the others. But the question now on his mind was…

_How? _


	3. Fate is a Cruel Mistress

A/N: Thanks again to all the great folks who reviewed me ((Flame31, mfkngst, ElvenRanger13, Evermore, and erabuhikari)), you guys rock my entire sock drawer. Anyway, sorry if this chapter confuses, I promise the pieces will soon fall into their proper places after everything is "launched".

Jack stopped eventually and dropped his bag onto the dirt and leaves. His eyes skirted the tall stalks of some kind of bamboo-like plants and tropical trees and hand he listened for a branch snapping, a bush rustling, anything that wasn't one hundred percent natural. Something wasn't right; he could feel it in his gut even though everything seemed normal.

That was the problem, actually, everything seemed too peaceful.

Kate and Charlie paused behind him, both surprised that he'd stopped so suddenly after seeming as edgy as he had before. He still looked just as jumpy to Kate and this made her more bothered than she'd been before. All she wanted to do was _help_ him, damnit, why wouldn't he let her? Jack was planning something and she had a suspicion she wasn't going to like whatever it was. What she needed to do now was stay calm and off his nerves while keeping an eye on him. He wouldn't do something stupid if she had anything to say about it, and she was certain she would.

"Kate, Charlie, stay here. I'm going to scout ahead a little before we move out." He paused and looked at his bag and Kate noticed his hand move slightly towards the knife in his belt, "If I'm not back in an hour, turn around."

Kate opened her mouth to protest but her voice was covered by Charlie's before she could even say a word, "And just _leave_ you there? No, I don't think so. I'm not leaving until you come back out to meet us, if you insist on going by yourself."

Charlie's blunt command left Jack speechless as his mind searched for another idea to work around the problem. As long as they didn't follow after him, maybe nothing would, maybe his plan would still work.

"Alright, wait here. I shouldn't be more than," Jack paused, "An hour or two. Is that satisfactory enough for you?"

"It's fine." Kate replied coolly and handed Jack his bag as she watched him disappear into the forest ahead of them. She didn't know what he was up to, but he'd been acting secretive the whole way into the forest and she was not going to let him have his way about everything. Had she known, she would never have let him leave the group.

-------------

Sayid stared out into the trees lining the beach. Inhaling deeply, he took the first familiar step along the beach, his crude map clutched in his right hand and a walking stick in his left. Finding her, even with the map as a guide, would be like trying to locate a moving, paranoid piece of hay in a giant needle stack. Hopefully that place he'd been at before was her main, if not only, hideout.

But if he thought _finding_ her was difficult, he knew figuring out what he was going to say to her would be much more so. Would she even help them? He highly doubted it. Even so, though, he had eventually admitted grudgingly to himself that Sawyer was indeed right and that if it could help at all, then it needed to be done.

What would happen if she did help? What could she do? Sayid had no idea, but he was determined to find out.

-------------

Shannon watched Michael and a slowly growing group of people working on what looked to her to just be a few ordinary, everyday tree trunks. She knew that Jack and a few of the others had left to carry out some sort of 'plan', everyone in both camps knew that by now. They were going out to rescue Claire and whatever it was that Michael was working on had something to do with it, although she doubted even he was quite sure exactly what it was.

A she sat on her rock watching them, another pang flipped her stomach as she thought about another rescue party, one that had gone out on the first day and had yet to return.

_He's fine, chill. You'd know if he wasn't._

Shannon pulled her knees close, crossed her arms on them and then rested her chin on top.

_He can handle himself. He was the only one in the family who ever could…_

She closed her eyes and tried to relax, but she was too antsy. No one had even mentioned Boone or Locke since last afternoon, everyone was too concerned with the new plan.

_No one else cares; they're all too busy. What if they never come back? You can't let that happen._

Well, if that was the way it was going to be, she'd think up something on her own. Resolutely, she stood up and marched off, an idea already forming in her mind.

-------------

_A boar. _

Locke looked it over carefully.

_At least with a little work it will be_.

He lowered his knife and glanced up from the small, wooden carving in his hand. Boone had started to pace again and there were few things that unnerved Locke so much as pacing. That was the main reason Locke had been trying to keep them moving, but following the piece of underground sheet metal had been proving meaningless that day, so he'd finally thrown in the towel for the afternoon.

"Something the matter?" He asked casually, sliding his knife back into its sheath on his belt slowly. One of the other few things that unnerved Locke more than pacing was a mistreated knife.

Boone stopped and sat down across from Locke on a mossy stone and shook his head, "No, it's nothing."

Rolling the small beginnings of the statuette in his palm, Locke raised an unconvinced eyebrow and Boone frowned.

"It's just that we've been out here nearly two days following that stupid piece of plane or whatever it is, but we haven't even seen a clue of the people we're looking for since we split up!" He stood again and walked to one edge of their small camp and said with frustration, "How long are we going to be wandering around out here?"

"I was figuring on as long as it takes to find out what that," He gestured to where they left off on the trail of metal, "leads to."

"What about the others though? If we stay out here another couple of days, weeks even, how're they going to know we're still alive?" Boone protested, still facing the jungle.

Locke paused, and then remarked, "If this is about your sister, I'm sure she can handle herself well enough if we're gone another few days."

Boone laughed scathingly, "Have you even _seen_ her? She can hardly look after herself for half an hour, let alone a week!" He slumped down to the rock again and shook his head, "If I'm not there I don't even want to think about what kind of trouble she's going to get into."

There was silence as Locke's eyes wandered back to his carving and Boone stared at his folded hands.

"You're aloud to be worried, you know." Locke remarked eventually.

Boone leapt up again, "How can I _not_ be worried?" He shook his head and began to walk as he spoke, "I can't tell if anything will happen to her from out here! She was in trouble when I went to get her and it's pretty apparent that there's _something_ out there that wants to kill us all, but I _still_ leave her alone! What if something happened to her while I was out here? I wouldn't find out until it was too damn late to do anything! I mean, I know we bitch at each other and everything, but she's my sister." Out of steam, he sank back to the rock, " I won't be able to forgive myself if anything happens to her."

Locke shrugged reassuringly, "As long as she stays with the others she'll be fine. There's safety in numbers."

Boone sighed, "Yeah, I guess you're right. She'll be fine…" He trailed off, still only partially satisfied, but enough to distract his mind to other things.

_Locke had been right about almost everything so far,_ Boone reassured himself. _He won't be wrong about this._

----------

Kate, too, had spent most of the last hour pacing. Jack still hadn't returned and the bad omen in the pit of Kate's stomach had grown to the point of almost being unbearable. Walking was becoming the only way to stop herself from feeling sick.

Charlie hadn't been much of a help, either. The whole time they'd been waiting, he'd been as silent as the forest around them, his eyebrows wrinkled in concentration. What he was thinking about Kate hadn't the foggiest idea, but she could guess.

It was on one of her numerous times back from one tree to another that Charlie finally spoke up, "Look, I know that you don't want to betray Jack's trust or whatever, but I think it's about time you let me in on what his plan is. I've been following you around all bloody day without even the slightest hint of what we're doing and now that he's surprised us both by leaving I would say it's the right time to speak up."

Kate stopped mid-step and stuttered, "W…What? You think _I_ know?"

"Well, yeah. Jack tells you practically everything, so it only makes sense that you'd be the one he let in on his plan in case something backfired." Charlie retorted.

"You'd be surprised." Kate muttered and then argued, "I don't know anything! Weren't you listening to us earlier?"

Charlie shook his head, flustered, "I hardly 'eard you two speak at all! All I could see most of the time was that you two were doing a lot of arguing which, then, seemed like a bad idea to get involved in, but I guess it would've been the only way I'm ever going to find out about this _plan_ as you've clammed up!"

Kate stomped forward, pointing at him and exclaiming, "I'm telling you the truth! I thought he'd told you since he'd been so willing to let you come along, but I guess I was wrong and I'll _admit _it."

She braced herself for another round of attacks but Charlie was quiet and his eyes looked around like he was just barely grasping something and didn't want to lose it.

"Charlie? Charlie what is it? You _do_ know something, don't you…" Kate grumbled in frustration.

"No, no, no." Charlie paused, calculating, "It's just that he didn't tell me, and he didn't tell you, and the only other person I saw him talking to was Michael and I'm pretty sure he's almost as in the dark as we are…"

"So?" Kate asked, shrugging, not really seeing any relevance to what he was going on about.

"_So_ no one knows any details of Jack's plan," Charlie began hurriedly.

"Yes, we're both _quite_ aware of that, but I don't see-"

Charlie cut her off with a wave of his hand, "And he ups and leaves by himself, just like he wanted to at first, remember?"

Kate nodded hesitantly, "Yeah…"

"He says he's 'scouting', but-"

"But he doesn't know anything about scouting!" Kate finished, catching on to what should have been remarkably obvious to her an hour ago, "The last time he tried to scout he wandered around in circles for fifteen minutes! Anyway, he knows I'm the one with tracking abilities. But why didn't he let me do it if he's trying to find that trail? It would save time."

"_Unless_ he isn't really tracking a trail at all." Charlie interjected, his eyes shining with excitement.

"But that still doesn't explain why we're retracing _these_ steps." Kate said with frustration, "Claire has to be down the other trail. This one was just designed to lure us away, even Jack has to see that."

Charlie stopped and furrowed his eyebrows again in thought, "I don't think he ever intended to try to rescue Claire _directly_."

Kate snorted, "Well, if he wasn't going to do that, what good did he think he could he do?"

Charlie paused, looking at the ground, the crease lines on his forehead increasing visibly. Kate didn't like that look; it was not a positive one.

She questioned quietly, "What? Charlie, what do you think he's up to?"

"I think he knew that Locke and Boone probably have a much better chance of finding her than he did so he was going to come up here on his own-" Charlie began, the light gone from his eyes again.

"Why on his own?" Kate questioned probingly. None of this was making sense to her now, but Charlie looked increasingly bothered and that was not helping the worry she felt.

"To be bait to lure out…whatever it is. To give Claire a chance to escape or be rescued." Charlie said in almost a whisper.

"But... but that's suicide!" Kate stammered, and her stomach did the largest flip she'd felt so far as she stepped back and sat down, suddenly feeling a little faint, "He could never take them on by himself. You _saw_ what it did to the pilot! How could Jack be so stupid not to have figured that out?"

Charlie spoke slowly, "I…I think he knew." He gulped, "This whole time he's been teaching us…me and Hurley, I mean, lots of stuff about medicine and the like, you know. Hurley and me together probably know enough to handle most of the common things that'd happen to any of us just from what Jack talked about when we went to deliver water and such."

"That's ridiculous, though, he couldn't have known then that this would happen, no one did!" Kate interjected, hoping his theory was wrong.

"Maybe it wasn't all him…maybe…maybe it was fate." Charlie replied in such a low tone he was hardly audible now, "Locke told me before that the island has powers, what if this is the way the island wants it to be?" Charlie asked, although he didn't seem too sure of it himself.

Kate looked up furiously, "So Jack's just going to be _killed_ because some _stupid piece of land_ says so?" She stood up, her hands balled into fists at her side, "I don't give a damn about fate or this island! Jack is not going to die out there fighting alone while I sit here and do nothing!"

Charlie jumped to his feet, Kate's determination rubbing off to him as well, "Then let's go! You follow him, as you'll catch up to him the fastest, and I'll circle the area in case he changed direction."

Kate nodded and grabbed her stuff, almost running as she picked up the trail. She was _going_ to catch up to him, and if she had to defy fate itself to do it, she would, assuming she was there on time.

_Oh god, let me be there on time._

A/N: Phew, long enough for ya'll? I really hadn't intended it to go on this long but heck, a lot of stuff happened, what can I say? Please r/r, much thanks!


	4. Dreams and a Meeting

A/N: Thanks again to my reviewers ((Ruby Foxburr of Loamsdown, Evermore, and Flame 31)), you guys are the best! :) Oh, and I'm taking one or two creative liberties this chapter on the characters pasts, but nothing big.

"Dreams that do come true can be as unsettling as those that don't". –Brett Butler

_Boone could never remember running this fast in his entire life. It almost didn't even seem like he was running, but that his feet had taken on wings and were flying just over the surface of the ground. No obstacle was stopping him and his speed never slowed, although his body felt no exertion. It would have been a beautiful feeling if an anticipation of certain dread wasn't lingering in him._

_The scream, that was the only thing he could focus on, and he could barely wrap his mind around that. It had to have been her, he'd immediately recognized the voice and that was when he'd started running. It wasn't supposed to happen that way; she was supposed to have stayed in the camp and he would go back to find her waiting for him, pissed off as ever that he'd even gone off in the first place. This was not how he'd ever imagined it would be…_

_His feet slowed as he neared one of the forest's clearings, but his steps were as guided as before. He wasn't sure if he wanted to see what lay beyond the final clump of trees, but it was as if he had no choice._

_With a final step, he emerged from the trees…_

"Boone… Boone, wake up."

Boone shook his head and rolled over onto his back with a grunt, trying to clear the sleepy fog from his eyes. He noticed the sky was dark now and through the trees he could see the glow of the stars that hadn't been obscured by clouds. He reckoned it was about seven or eight-ish now.

"Are you alright?" Locke's voice asked from across the small, smoldering campfire, "You seemed pretty restless."

"Huh?" Boone yawned as his brain slowly registered and transitioned into a more aware state, "Oh, no, I'm fine, just had a weird dream." Stretching, he crossed his legs and sat up straighter, "So, when are we going to start on that hunk of metal again?"

"I was just waiting for you to wake up." Locke said as he stood up, fingering the knife in his belt thoughtfully before turning and walking a couple yards away to the place they'd left off on earlier that day. Boone picked up a thick branch, held it in the fire until the end lighted and followed Locke, who had already started to clear away the mud.

Boone got down on his knees and began to do the same, but he couldn't get his mind off of the dream. He'd never believed dreams really meant anything before then, but after that one, he wasn't sure anymore. It had felt so real at the time and, to be perfectly honest, it had frightened him more than any horror movie he could ever remember seeing. What he needed was s second opinion.

"Locke?" Boone asked as he wiped dirt and mud off the metal, "What do you think about, err, dreams?" Locke glanced up and gave him a slightly puzzled expression as he hastily continued, "You know, like are they just random brain waves or do they actually mean anything?"

Locke looked back down and continued wiping away and said nothing for a moment. Boone really hadn't been expecting an answer, anyway, but it felt better to muse his thoughts out loud.

"I think it depends," Locke remarked without looking up, surprising Boone, "Most dreams…well, they're probably just static from the brain. Others, though, I think they're warnings, maybe even small glimpses at something else, like the future. A deja vu of sorts." Locke turned his head in the direction of Boone, "Does this have anything to do about earlier?"

Boone nodded, "I was running, in this dream I mean, really, really fast, and I was going somewhere. I don't know where, well, I mean I _did_ know where, but I didn't at the same time." Boone paused, "Making sense so far?"

Locke answered, "Enough."

"So then I remember just thinking over and over again that…that something wasn't supposed to happen. Someone had screamed, and I think that's where I was going, to help whoever it was. I recognized the voice and that was when I started running through the jungle, this jungle." Boone tried to replay the snippets of his dream he could remember, but it was all cloudy, "I think there was a clearing and I really didn't want to go in there, something wasn't right about it. Then I woke up." Boone shrugged and went back to wiping off the grime and grit.

Locke was silent and he had stopped cleaning. Eventually he responded, "You want my opinion?"

"Sure."

"Most likely it was stress. You fell asleep unsettled and unresolved and your mind probably fed off of that. I wouldn't worry about it." Locke reassured him, but Boone was suspicious. Something about the way Locke spoke chilled Boone, but he accounted it all to nerves. Why would Locke lie to him?

So he took Locke's advice and pushed the dream as far from his thoughts as he could.

----------

Sayid was far more cautious this time about than he had been before, avoiding all the traps on his way and for once felt incredibly thankful for his military background. Finally he stood in front of the trap door, hesitating.

The scuffling below him stopped; she knew someone had come. It was now or never.

"Danielle, its Sayid." He began quickly, hoping she would recognize his name; otherwise the greeting would not be as welcoming as he would like. A bullet in his chest was not high on the list of Sayid's wishes.

There was a noise from below that almost sounded like a squeak of some sort and more rustling and then silence once again. Sayid took a step back and prepared to run at the first sign of danger. Danielle was as unpredictable as she was secretive.

The ground moved slightly and a chuck of earth began to rise into the air as if it were on hinges. Two bright eyes shown out from under it, the face was obscured by shadows.

"The artisan has returned." Mused a quiet voice from the owner of the eyes, "I never expected you back so soon."

"Hello, Danielle." Sayid greeted in return.

"Get in before They see you." She hissed and the eyes disappeared from the opening as Sayid slid through and climbed down the ladder, keeping his eyes averted from the metal bed in the corner of the room as he looked around for Danielle.

"What brings you?" She asked tonelessly from her stool perch where she sat with her legs crossed, eyes watching his every movement, "I didn't think I'd ever see you after you ran away that day."

Lying to her was pointless. Someone with her sense of paranoia would see through it in a second.

"I… we need your help." Sayid explained carefully, "Two of our people were kidnapped. One they tried to kill and the other is still held by them. We _need_ to get her back."

Danielle's eyes narrowed, but she didn't move or speak.

"You know of these…things in the jungle, more than all of us combined know. Two groups are out seeking her, but there have been…worries that their chance of locating her in time is slim." He let the words hang in the air and waited for an answer.

He was surprised at how well she'd listened while he was speaking. The last time they'd met she'd been on edge the whole time, but now she seemed calmer in a way. Just as untrusting, but calmer. Now her fingers were gripping the edge of the stool and her eyes were narrowed and unblinking.

"You left. Why should I help you?" She asked, bitter contempt in her voice that surprised Sayid. It was some of the first real emotion he'd ever heard from her that hadn't been a result of paranoia.

Sayid squirmed uncomfortably under her indecipherable gaze and then stood to leave, "You're right, you have no reason to help us." He nodded a goodbye and turned to leave, hoping she'd put up some kind of argument as he neared the ladder.

There was silence in the room. He turned his head back around to look at her.

She hadn't moved from the stool, but she was no longer watching him. Her eyes were still on the place he'd sat a moment ago and she was murmuring quietly to herself.

Sayid sighed. He hadn't wanted to go as far as he was about to, it was just his final plan to win her agreement as she'd shot down his other ideas.

"The woman they took," Sayid began slowly, "was pregnant. We think…. we think they may be after the child."

Danielle's eyes shot over to him and widened. Jumping off the stool, she sent it clattering to the dirt as she disappeared into the wire cage she'd been in the first time he'd seen her. Shuffling and things falling off of shelves could be heard, then nothing.

"Danielle?" Sayid ventured warily.

"Out!"

"But, Danielle, I-" Sayid began.

"OUT!"

He knew he'd overstayed his welcome and he pulled himself up the ladder as quickly as he could and crawled out of the opening under the trap door.

That had not gone as well as it should have. His plans had failed miserably. Now he had to return to camp empty handed. At least he'd proven Sawyer wrong, but that really didn't matter to him then. Not only did he not receive her help, he was almost certain that he wasn't welcome around there again. It irritated him how much that particular thought bothered him…

Picking up his walking stick from the ground, he began the long path back to the beach camp with just enough daylight left to guide him there.

After a little while, he heard vague rustling noises from the ferns near him. His hand tightened on the branch and he stopped, listening, his mind flashing to the voices he'd heard before. But this was a different sound, one a single being might make while traveling through the forests, and there were no words to this sound.

He knew who it was.

Turning back to his path, he trudged forward, the smallest of smiles appearing on his face.

----------

_Maybe this isn't the best idea…_

Shannon brushed the voice from her thoughts and continued to pack a backpack with enough food and water to last a couple days. She was determined to follow through with her own plan. It was safe enough, she'd just be following the direction she'd seen him leave and try to follow him from there, simple and straightforward.

She was too preoccupied to be bothered by the possible dangers, which she had briefly thought about before packing. If she just stayed quiet and was aware of her surroundings she'd be fine.

Throwing her bag over her shoulder, she looked back at the beach one last time. She would prove herself, she knew it. Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the forest, unnoticed by the other survivors as she slipped away into the disappearing light.

----------

Kate was pushing herself harder than she could ever remember doing before. Her build was not one of a sprinter, which she was becoming more aware of the further she ran, but her speed was surprisingly fast for the time she'd been going. None of that concerned her though; her only focus was on reaching Jack as soon as she could before… Her mind always stopped there.

Leaping over a rock, she skidded and almost lost her footing on the moss below it before throwing herself back to balance.

_How much further could he be? He wasn't even running…_

But after twenty minutes she still hadn't caught him, and the worry she'd felt while talking to Charlie was tranquility compared to now. Her heart was hammering, and she was pretty sure it wasn't just from all the exercise.

_Don't be stupid_. She told herself, trying to calm down. _You've seen death before, this won't be any different._

Except it would, and no matter how much she told herself otherwise she didn't believe it.

Five minutes later she was slowing, exhausted and frustrated, adrenaline still pumping in her blood. Leaning onto one of the trees she stopped, inhaling deeply and trying to will herself to start running again.

With her distractions, it was no surprise she didn't hear the movement near her.

"Well, well, your kind just keeps popping up, don't they?" Commented a voice form behind her in a mildly amused tone, "They can't just mind their own business and have to go butting in where they're not wanted."

The voice froze Kate's blood, though she couldn't remember ever hearing it before. Slowly she turned her head around to look over her shoulder.

Ethan wore no expression; he rarely did. It was an asinine waste of energy designed by lower mortals to express emotions, which he valued less than expressions.

Kate faced him, standing as tall as she could and planted her feet, looking for any means of possible escape. She knew her chances against him if it came to physical defense and they were certainly not in her favor.

"I wouldn't try running." He added lightly and then took a step towards her. She backed away.

"Your kind has cost me more time than I was allotted to finish my job. They were highly displeased and here one of you is trying to stop me again." He made a tisking noise, "Obviously one death was not enough of a lesson."

For a moment Kate was sure she was going to be sick. He had to be talking about Claire or, more likely, Jack. Then she remembered Charlie.

He was the one death. Ethan didn't know he was alive…

And she was not about to let him.

"Wha…what are you talking about?" She stammered, holding her ground and thanking every god she could think of for that high school drama class her mom had made her take.

Ethan chuckled in a way that sent a shiver down Kate's spine, "You didn't find him yet? Pity, the boars will have by now. No wonder you came out here… I'll just have to make your body easier to find this time."

Kate took another step back, "You killed Charlie!" She hissed and then did the next thing she thought of, spitting on his shoe, "Bastard!"

"Ah, I'd forgotten that was his name. I thought Charlie was the short rocker?" Ethan said in his same dulcet tone with slight confusion.

Kate raised her eyebrows. But he _was_ talking about Charlie, wasn't he?

"He _is_. Everyone else besides Charlie and Claire are back at the camp…" She lied, "You killed Charlie…"

Ethan's mouth twisted slightly into something Kate guessed was a wicked smile, "I thought you were smarter than that, Kate." He took another step forward as Kate took a smaller one backwards. The space between Ethan and the tree behind her was almost gone.

"I killed Charlie two days ago. I'm surprised Locke hasn't found him yet, it's pathetic." Ethan stated bluntly and Kate resisted the throbbing urge to punch him hard across the jaw.

"No, no, I would never bring up a murder more than a day old. Then it's just bragging." Ethan took another step forward and Kate moved away, her back hitting the tree, "The one I'm talking about is much more recent."

Kate was beginning to feel sick again, but hid it, "How could you have gotten to anyone else? They're all back at the camps… unless you killed Claire?" The sick feeling grew.

He shook his head, "Kate, Kate, you and I both know you're lying. There was another with you; that little doctor friend of yours."

Her fingers rolled up into fists at her side, "If you even _touched_ him, I swear to god I'll-"

Ethan just stood there, the small smirk back on his face and all Kate could feel was hatred through every bit of her soul. She'd never hated anyone that much, not the marshal, not her father, no one. To Kate, Ethan was no longer human, he was a fiend. He'd emotionally wrecked Claire and Charlie, who he'd then tried to kill, and now he'd succeeded in murdering Jack for no reason other than he'd tried to save a _pregnant woman_.

Kate screamed and threw herself at him.


	5. Betrayal

A/N: Well, now would be as good a time as any to point out I own nothing. I wish I did, darn it, but I don't. Tear Anyway, thanks to Freckles-101, FlyingMonkeys007, lj, Evermore, Ruby Foxburr of Loamsdown, ljae, and Wildjinx. You guys are awesome!

A/N #2: Whoops, this morning I just realized I uploaded the wrong one. It's almost exactly the same, just a couple changes and one or two lines are missing, but I think it's clearer, so I re-uploaded this chapter.

Sayid moved into the beach camp, his follower stopping at the edge of the jungle. Looking over the stretch of sand, he found Michael, Hurley, and to his continued surprise, Sawyer, along with a small group of others working on what appeared to be five slightly decrepit looking, hollow logs with triangular platform-like structures attacked to one side, causing them to slope up into the air, almost cannon-like. Walking up the assembly, he nodded a greeting.

"Hello," He said, going to Michael specifically, "How is the progress?"

Wiping the grime from his hands onto his pants, he straightened up from the log he and two others were currently working on and shrugged, "It could be better, but I'm not complaining. At this pace," He looked up at the last tendrils of sun sinking over the ocean, "We can move these babies in an hour and have them ready to use half an hour after that."

"Why do they need to be moved?" Sayid asked curiously, surveying them the way anyone but an art connoisseur would survey a can of tomato soup in a gallery, understanding that there was probably greater depth than what met the eye, but not quite grasping it.

_Or better yet, what _are _they?_ He thought, but refrained from asking until his first question was answered.

Michael shook his head, "I don't know. Jack just left the instructions, he didn't explain them. I'm just following what it says to do right here." He pulled out a piece of folded legal paper from his pocket and passed it to Sayid.

Unfolding it, he looked it over. On it was a crude pen sketch of something that looked vaguely similar to the contraptions in front of him and some very clear notes.

_Tonight. Five of these stationed at various distances away from_ _the beach and caves, the further spread out, the better. One person to each, wait for the light, then yell as loud as possible through the bottom end of the log for as long as possible, pausing only to breathe. Five must be prepared for possible danger, but at first sign should wait as long as possible before running to regroup at the caves._

"So he means to use the logs as some sort of… amplifying device?" Sayid asked, handing the paper back to Michael.

"Your guess is as good as mine."

Sayid paused as Michael went back down to work and took one look back at the forest before returning his gaze back to Michael.

"Have you gotten the 'five' yet?"

"Almost, I've got one left." He glanced up at Sayid, "Interested?"

Sayid nodded and Michael exhaled with relief, "Thanks man, for a little while I was wondering if I'd get a fifth. Any more questions, cause if you don't I'd like to get back to work…"

Shaking his head, Sayid started towards one of the logs two from the edge.

"Hello, Sawyer." He said placidly. It was not the time for rivalries; he could deal with that later. As of now they seemed to be working as a team of sorts.

Sawyer glanced up out of the corner of his eye and then went back to shaping the inside of the log with a fist sized piece of plane metal, "You're back faster than I expected. So?"

"She agreed." Sayid squatted down and added in a hushed voice, "Or, well, it doesn't matter. She's out at the edge of the trees. What's next?"

"Next?" Sawyer's eyebrows rose slightly as he glanced over again, "I didn't say I knew what we'd do _next_."

Sayid's brow wrinkled and he hissed, "_What?_ I thought you had a plan…"

"Keep your shirt on, Iraqi, I'll think of something." He muttered and went back to working on the log. Grumbling, Sayid stood and walked away.

They had two, maybe three hours left before Michael said they'd have to be in position for the signal. If Sawyer had nothing by then, he'd take it into his own hands.

----------

Shannon was completely lost. The trail washed away in the rain, if they'd ever been following one to begin with, so from the beginning she figured she'd start from the beach and hopefully follow in the same direction. Heck, it was an island; they'd meet up eventually…

Or so she hoped.

But now she was very doubtful as to whether or not she was even going the right way anymore. The forest wasn't like the city; it didn't have street names or maps or taxi drivers to get directions from, it had a bunch of trees and bushes that all looked exactly the same to her.

_Which isn't my fault,_ She thought to herself as she walked around yet another rock, _I mean, girls from the city just aren't supposed to know these things. How could I guess I'd ever need to learn outdoor survival or whatever? That's just stupid…_

It was all Boone's fault anyway for going off tracking in the first place. He wasn't her boyfriend; he didn't have to listen to her to keep their relationship "together". She couldn't dump her brother, so they'd have to talk eventually.

She passed another rock, the same one?

_They all look the same, stupid, it's a jungle._

Shannon paused and glanced around. Why hadn't she been paying attention the first time around? Now she couldn't tell left from right or forward from backward, it was all just one green jumble.

The bushes behind Shannon quivered slightly and she jumped. Turning around in a full circle, she eyed the plants around her. Someone… something was out there.

"Boone?" She asked tentatively from where the rustling came from.

More noises followed as leaves began to shake from first one, then three, then six of the ferns now in front of her. Shannon stepped back, searching for a rock or a stick, anything she could use for defense as something finally moved into view.

Shannon screamed.

----------

Grabbing one of the red tatters of shirt he'd been using to mark trees, he whipped his hands off on it. The torch had died down considerably and Locke had decided to call it a night on their progress.

Boon watched the skies above the canopy quietly as he twisted the red shred in his hand. It was so peaceful. It was hard to imagine that something was lurking out there ready to slaughter them all at the drop of a hat. There were mild bird noises of some kind and the sound of a nearby creek they'd passed earlier that day, but other than that it was dead silent. Locke had been carving silently the whole time while Boone had spent his time in a cross between thought, worry, and dread.

Suddenly a hand was on Boone's shoulder. Locke stood behind him and searched the line of palms ahead of them.

"What?" Boone asked quietly, immediately alert and trying to find whatever Locke saw.

"Shh," Locke held his hand in front of Boone, a signal for him to stay put as Locke stepped forward, "Did you hear that?"

"No, wha-?" Boone began to ask, but a piercing scream split the sky before he could finish.

_Both feet were in the clearing now and the cloudy vision around his eyes cleared like a lifting fog. As soon as he'd seen it, he wished he could be as far away from it as possible._

_Blood splattered the ground and leaves like rain, dripping from ferns and pooling in the dirt. A limp, torn form lay against a rock on the far side. Boone moved towards it carefully. Why was it so recognizable?_

_Now he was as close to it as he could without standing in the red puddle it lay in. His heart was racing, but he didn't know why. He couldn't bring himself to look down at the human form, if it was even still identifiable as that. He was about to turn around when something inside him willed his eyes to look at the face, the only part untouched by the carnage that had passed. Boone paused and then gazed down._

Boone tried to leap towards the jungle, forgetting Locke's grip on his shoulder. He stopped short and tried again, but now Locke was holding his arm as well.

"Let me go!" Boone yelled, straining against his grip.

"I'm afraid I can't do that." Locke stated, his grip firming on Boone, although it was unnecessary as he stopped struggling the moment he spoke.

"_What_?" He froze, "Locke, that was Shannon, I _know_ it was! She's in trouble; we've got to help her!" Why did he have to explain this to him? He'd heard the scream. That person needed their help! Even if Locke didn't know who it was, Boone did.

He'd seen her in the clearing.

"I know." Locke stated bluntly, "Everything is going as it should."

"_Going as it should?_" Boone repeated in shock, "What the hell do you mean by that?"

Locke didn't answer, but he didn't need to. Boone knew. He'd been against him the whole time…he was working for Them. He was a traitor…

And now he was going to keep Boone here while Shannon died.

"I'm sorry." Locke said quietly and his grip released the smallest of a fraction.

Boone was gone and nearly into the trees before Locke had even had time to think. Sprinting as fast as his legs could carry him, Boone fled towards the scream, leaving Locke far behind in his wake.

----------

Kate hit the earth hard, skidding back on her side almost a foot before she stopped, but before she could even take another breath, he had her shoulder again.

The advantage she'd held against Ethan from the surprise of her attack had lasted about half a minute before he'd gained the upper hand. Now he was toying with her like a boy with a bee, poking her and agitating her until he finally decided to rip her wings off and leave her for dead. Her arms were bruised and she guessed her face didn't look much better, cut and bleeding.

Ethan spun her so her back hit the tree. Kate jumped away, cursing herself for being so stupid as to start a fight against him in the first place. Now she was as good as dead.

"Kate, all this dodging is just going to prolong the inevitable." He chastened in a falsely serious tone, "Not that I won't enjoy every extra moment, but you really should start thinking of yourself."

She rolled to the side and kicked out towards his legs, catching one and causing his knees to buckle, but he recovered too quickly and sent a kick at her side. Rolling again, she managed to get the brunt of the blow on the sole of her shoe. She'd tried to attack him, but now she worked on defense with only the hope of wearing him down.

"That was better." He commented lightly as he half circled her and then moved back again, making sure to block any possibility of escape with the tree behind her and him in front, "But not good enough, unfortunately. If you'd co-operate with me, neither of us would have to waste our time here."

"Co-operate _how_?" Kate spat.

"You're part of the camp, there has to be something you know. You could be a great help to us," Ethan persuaded, "or you can face a slow, agonizing death out here. What do you have to say?"

Kate paused, looking at the ground. Ethan smiled slightly. He knew Kate was a convict, just as he knew the past of all the other survivors, and was prepared to manipulate it to his advantage. It wasn't as if anyone would find them there, anyway, he had all the time in the world now that the package was delivered. It was the perfect condition for his next means of attack, silent with just the few annoying rustles of plants here and there.

He knelt down, and began to weave the lies that were his specialty, "I know about you, Kate, I know everything." He paused, savoring the startled glance he got from her.

"They'll never accept you at the camps when they find out and you know they're going to know soon. A secret like yours cannot lay buried forever. You'll be alone, completely and utterly alone just like before only thousands of times worse. You can't run away this time, Kate." He stopped again to look at her. Her eyes were boring distant holes into the ground.

It was working; she was soaking in his words like a sponge. He was delighted and began focusing his energy in the direction of mental destruction. The surroundings didn't matter; no one would find them there. He'd left some meaningless, meandering trail for that doctor while Locke watched the other man. Heck, if he had time later he'd go back and repeat the process with both of them. But now was not the time to think of the future; now was the time to concentrate.

Someone watching them breathed a sigh or relief.


	6. It Begins

A/N: Again, I'd like to remind I don't own anything, sadly, and that this is **AU, **especially after that last two doozies of an episode. Many thanks to Evermore, Rockin' FluteTrumpet, scrawn, Emily, Freckles-101, ljae, spacegirl, mfkngst, Flame 31, bwcheer, Taylor, sweet-as-honey, and Setszuki, it's pretty awesome to see how much ya'll are liking this. Oh, and there are certain things from a couple of the previous episodes that aren't a big deal, but I threw them in there for… well, cause I felt like it.

Boone's chest was pounding and his lungs were screaming for oxygen. He scrambled over one rock and then another, running as fast as he could. Locke would never catch him at that speed, Boone was at his age's physical peak Locke had passed years ago.

But his mind had forgotten about him as soon as he'd started running. With every second that passed without another scream the only thing he could think about was _her_.

As his feet touched solid earth again, an eerie realization hit him as he ran. It all seemed vaguely familiar, the forests, the rocks, everything…

_Others, though, I think they're warnings. Even small glimpses at something else, like the future…_

_A déjà vu of sorts._

It was from his dream. The moment he'd escaped Locke it'd been that way, like his feet were just retracing known steps.

But if that was true…

Boone ran harder. No, it _couldn't_ be true, he wouldn't let it! Pure energy was coursing through him now, feeding off the anger, hate, fear, and every other emotion he could ever remember feeling. It pulsed and shook every nerve in his body, the pain in his chest close to exploding and his muscles burning.

He had to help her, he'd always saved her before and then she hadn't even needed it. He wasn't going to fail her the one time she did.

The trees began to thin out; the clearing was close now. In the dream he remembered stopping, but he wouldn't stop now.

Roaring, he threw himself through the last of the trees.

----------

"That's the last one." Sayid said as the last of the logs rolled back into the edge of the holder tilting it towards the stars that were beginning to twinkle above, "Is everyone else in position, Michael?"

Looking at the lined paper, Michael nodded, "They should be by now. This'll be yours." He folded the piece of paper and stuck it in his back pocket, "Now remember: wait for the light, yell, run at danger."

Sayid nodded and Michael patted his shoulder, "Good luck." He turned and walked back down the path they'd dragged the log up only minutes ago.

Sayid turned his gaze up to the sky. He guessed he was a little less than a mile north west of the cave camp. It was almost fully dark now and Sayid's hand moved, trying to find the flashlight he'd brought up with the log. He could feel the forest floor under his hand, then some leaves and a few small pebbles; he could've sworn it'd been in that area only a few moments ago.

More leaves, a stick, and then the flashlight.

_Good._ He moved it closer to him.

All of a sudden a hand was pressed on top of his. Jumping back, he swung the flashlight, flipping the switch with his thumb.

"Hey, shut that damn thing off! Do you want everything within' a half mile seeing where we are?" Sawyer blinked into the flashlight, his hand trying to block the light.

Sayid turned it downwards but watched Sawyer skeptically, "Why didn't you just say something?"

"Well I didn't know if it was you or not until after you'd blinded me with your flashlight!" Sawyer shook his head once, trying to clear the purple and white spots form his eyes, "Look, I came up here because I thought of an idea."

"Oh?" Sayid asked, the skepticism in his eyes now in his voice as he crossed his arms.

"Yeah. This plan of Jack's, it's just a diversion, I'd reckon. Placing people all around, I think he wants to get rid of whatever's out there long enough to grab Claire and run."

"It would make more sense than an attack, certainly." Sayid agreed, nodding, "But, if this was their idea, how do they know where to find Claire?"

"With Jack leading?" Sawyer snorted, "There isn't a chance in hell they do, which is the problem. So-"

"Yes?"

"_So_ someone else is going to have to find her," Sawyer paused, a thoughtful expression on his face, "and if I remember correctly, a certain someone with the knowledge to do it has recently decided to help us."

"Help me," Sayid corrected automatically, "Not even me. I think she's in it for her own reasons." His eyes wandered to the darkness around them.

"Her reasons, our reasons, does it really matter?" Sawyer shrugged, "As long as she'll help us, who cares what her motives are." He paused, "She _will_ help us, right?"

Sayid shifted uncomfortably, "I'm… I'm not sure-"

"She will." A third voice answered quietly from the trees behind them. Sawyer's head jerked to the direction of the voice. There was the slightest shuffling headed east and then silence again.

Turning back to Sayid, Sawyer raised both his eyebrows questioningly. He nodded and Sawyer's eyes widened slightly.

There was silence as Sayid and Sawyer sat down and the flashlight was turned off again. Danielle would be far by now, Sayid knew. Now all that he had to do was to sit and wait for the 'light', whatever Jack meant by that, and he could easily have done that by himself. Yet, Sawyer seemed quite intent on staying right where he was. That confused Sayid; from everything he'd seen of Sawyer, he had no respect for him whatsoever, but all of a sudden he seemed bent changing his ways.

"Why, Sawyer?" Sayid asked, rolling the flashlight in his hand.

"Why _what_?"

"Why have you suddenly grown so involved?"

Sawyer didn't answer immediately, so both sat in the darkness and quiet once again.

"I have my reasons." Sawyer replied coolly, "None of which are really any of your business, so don't bother asking again."

Sayid shrugged his shoulders lightly, even though he knew Sawyer couldn't see him in the dark, and dropped the subject, letting the night sounds close in once more. The last thing anyone needed right then was an enemy.

----------

"So what'll it be, Kate?" Ethan asked patiently. The sun had set and clouds had begun to roll in, clouding over the stars and moon, leaving the clearing in almost complete darkness except for the flashlight Ethan held now pointed at Kate.

Kate was expressionless, her face down and her shoulders slumped in defeat. She knew what her options were and they were both equally horrible. Her mind was still having trouble sorting everything that had happened in the last minute, but there was still one thing she distinctly remembered…

"There's nothing you can do for them now, any of them."

Something had happened to Jack. Ethan… that _thing _had done something to him, to Charlie, to Claire.

"But you can still save yourself."

It was then Kate realized that she couldn't say yes. In her life before the crash she would have without a second thought, but now…

Ethan held out his hand for her to shake. Sliding forward on her knees, Kate reached out and grabbed the hand… and then bit down on it as hard as she could, tasting the irony flavor of blood on her tongue.

Ethan shouted and recoiled his hand as he jumped to his feet. Kate smirked in victory.

It was a short lived feeling, as the next second Ethan's shoe had slammed into her side and her cheek once again connected with dirt. Pain shot through her side as she choked and spat up blood and then looked up at him. He'd dropped the flashlight and now his hand was moving towards something in his belt, and before she could get away, a gun was pointed at her chest.

"I offered you an easy way out, and you didn't take it. Pity you had to choose the hard road." The gun shifted to a point at her knees instead, "We'll start down here and work our way up, sound good?"

Kate flinched as Ethan cocked the gun but managed to rasp as she spit out more blood, "It sounds sup-"

Suddenly there was a crash and a shot as a blur smashed into Ethan and the bullet discharged into the tree inches away from Kate's knee. Kicking against the ground, she pushed herself out of the way of Ethan and the blur and tried to see what was happening. She was still on her side and as Ethan and his assailant separated and she heard the attacker come to a stop a few feet in front of her. Kate didn't know whether or not whoever it was could be a friend, but if nothing else it would be enough of a distraction for her to slip away into the bushes she was just a yard or two away.

Staying low to the ground, she began to crawl army-style towards where she remembered there being bushes, ignoring the blistering pain running from her side to her head. Only five feet left, then four, she could make out their vague outlines against the blackness.

Then the flashlight clicked on. Kate froze.

"I can't say I'm surprised to see you here." Ethan's voice commented in his eerily calm tone, as if he'd almost been expecting the attack, "Sooner than I thought, though, congratulations."

"Wow, thanks." Came the out of breath but composed reply from the invader. Kate vaguely recognized the voice, but was having trouble hearing either of them over the hammering of her head. She was so close to freedom…

"I assume I can guess why you came." Ethan said, flicking the flashlight in Kate's direction and then back to the man he was talking to. Now her eyes had almost adjusted to the light and she could make out a blurry outline from the glow cast around his figure.

"Among other reasons." Replied the man, just as calmly and collectedly as Ethan himself had been talking, only something was different about it. Beneath the relaxed tone she could almost feel the tension and anger coiling inside him, the same feeling she'd been privy to less than a minute ago. Just as she had begun to calm her mind just enough to think about inching away again, something made it speed again…

The man shifted his left foot forward slightly, causing something around his neck to catch the light for just a second before he slid his foot back again.

It was a key. _Her_ key.

"I'm guessing you aren't just going to let us walk away from here."

"I think that _is_ stating the obvious."

"But you are going to let her go." The man stated with complete confidence.

"Really, I am?" Kate guessed if she could see Ethan's expression then it would have been on the verge of amusement, "Wait, I know. You're going to trade yourself for her or something as equally cliché as that."

"Nope."

"Hmm, well then I'm stumped, Mr. Shepherd. Please enlighten me."

"You're going to let her go so you can have it out fair and square with me." Jack explained coolly and Ethan's flashlight shifted slightly, "Kill me, you can still hunt her down afterwards, otherwise, well," He shrugged and his foot shifted again slightly back and then out and forward again until he stood, balanced on both feet, "you really won't have to worry about it anymore."

Kate eyed Jack skeptically. _What_ was he up to? At least he could stop sliding his feet around and show some confidence; it was all he'd have up against Ethan. She remembered the dark purple bruise on his cheek, and that had been only a warning.

_Great, super. You run all that way and get the crap kicked out of you just to _stop_ him from killing himself and now you're just going to sit back and _watch_ it happen. Way to go, Kate, way to go…_

"So, is it a yes?" Jack asked, crossing his arms and tapping his foot in mock impatience.

She looked down at his feet and the scrapes in the earth from all the moving he'd done. Some of the beams form the flashlight broke past his legs and cast deeper shadows on the holes from the heel of his shoe. Kate blinked and tilted her head to the side.

"Patience is a virtue." Ethan commented lightly.

She could have sworn that first mark looked like a 'G'…

Jack shrugged, "You're stalling."

That second one kind of looked like a crooked 'E' shape…

"Believe what you want."

Then 'T', then 'C'. They _were _letters, four of them. But what was Getc supposed to mean? That didn't even make sense…

Ethan held out his bitten hand, it had stopped bleeding now, but Kate could tell, with satisfaction, that she'd most definitely left a mark, "Alright, I agree."

Jack nodded, "Hands only?" Ethan nodded in accord.

G etc? Ge tc? Get c? That was the most logical one. Get C, get C, get something that started with a c. Or someone?

_Claire starts with a C, but I can't get her. How would that help, anyway? C, c, c… Charlie!_ Kate's mind suddenly clicked and she slid back into the bushes and rolled onto her side. Painfully, she crawled away, stood up and began to move as fast as her body would allow, which was a slow trot compared to her before.

It was only ten minutes before she had to stop. Wincing, she leaned against one of the tall trees, taking in deep breaths as she tried to collect herself. It was so dark she couldn't even see where she was going now.

It was hopeless, she'd never find Charlie at that rate, _assuming_ he'd stayed in the area she'd left him, which she doubted he had.

Taking another breath, she heard a rattling sound and a thump, followed by a small rumbling and more rattling. Holding her breath, Kate sank down until she squatted between two of the tree roots.

_Please let it pass me, please…_ Kate wished fervently. She felt so stupid for how slow she'd gone and how she'd managed to completely lose all her normal reasoning in the course of a couple of hours. For a minute she almost wished she could go back to the way it had used to be, before the crash.

Then there was another bump and this time a voice.

"Bullocks! Bloody forest doesn't even have a decent path…"

"Charlie?" Kate asked in surprise, "Is that you?"

"Kate?" Came the voice again, "Is that _you_? You sound awful."

"Nice to see you too, Charlie." Kate said sarcastically as she pulled herself up from the roots and moved closer to the barely visible outline of him, "Do you have a flashlight?"

"Of course I do, I just like wandering around in the middle of this bloody forest in the dark. Call it a hobby-"

"I found Jack." Kate began, cutting him off quickly, "Well, I found Ethan, I mean, and Jack found Ethan, but we have to go, Ethan has probably started and if we don't hurry-"

"What are you _talking_ about?" Charlie said, gripping her shoulder firmly.

Kate took a deep breath, "Look, I found Ethan, then Jack found us and-"

A sound like a firecracker hissed in the air and popped, echoing in the sky above them.

"What the-?" Charlie began, his head moving from side to side, "Was that a gunshot?"

"Oh my god…" Kate whispered quietly and then grabbed Charlie's shoulder, dragging him off into the jungle the way she'd just come, "Quick, we've got to go!"


	7. The First Attack

A/N: Thanks to Feckles-101, Evermore, Taylor47, Jess, Oreata, bwcheer, suspencer, Tatiana, Rockin' Flute Trumpet, candyclouds, and Pink Pinker. I'm glad that chapter was worth the wait and I just want to say a big thanks for all my reviews so far, I enjoy them very much! I apologize for the shortness, but the next part is getting stuck and I didn't want to make everyone wait forever, so this'll have to do for now.

Bushes scattered, Boone could hear it as he landed in the clearing. Birds screeched and flew into the sky as his eyes searched for the rock from his dream in the settling darkness.

"Shannon!" Boone yelled as he rushed over to the sagging, blonde form on the ground and knelt beside her, two of his fingers instinctively touching her neck, begging for a pulse.

There it was; the steady rhythmic beat under his fingertips. Boone began to breathe again as he pulled his hand away. She was unconscious. He could deal with that. Jack would be at the camp, he could just take her there and then-

"Boone?" A quiet, bewildered voice broke into his thoughts and he looked down into the grey eyes that were staring back up at him, "You're here?" They looked one way, than the other and then the eyes fell back on him, "What happened?"

"Of course I'm here," He said, shrugging off the almost bitter surprise in her voice indifferently, "I always have to get you out of trouble, why should it be any different here?"

"Boone, get over yourself." Shannon groaned, "What _happened?_"

"How am I supposed to know?" Boone retorted, crossing his arms as she leaned up on her elbows and flinched, blinking, "I got here and you were gorked out on the ground. What're you doing out here anyway? I thought I told you it's-"

"Shut up, alright, I'm not eight anymore. I can take care of myself-" Shannon snapped, her eyes adverting to her hands quickly.

"Fat chance! You couldn't _ever_ take care of yourself. You're a helpless, worthless waste of space!" Boone was almost yelling again, although his reasoning now was at the opposite end of the spectrum then it'd been earlier. He couldn't believe this! After all he'd gone through that night, the worry, pain, and fear, and _this_ was his _reward_ for doing the right thing?

"Boone, just shut up!" Shannon rubbed her forehead with frustration and she slowly sat up, "What, do you think I just passed out _for the hell of it_? There was something there!" Putting her hands against the rock for balance, she stood shakily, swaying until she found her balance, "I'm leaving."

"What? Alone?" Boone interrogated as he rose, "No, sorry, no way."

"Oh yeah?" Shannon asked defiantly, "I'm just a waste of space anyway, right Boone? Why do you even give a damn?"

Leave it to Shannon to shove his words right back down his throat.

"Fine, you know what? I'm glad we agree for once, I _don't_ give a damn. Go out there and get yourself killed, for all I care, I'm finished." Boone turned, shoving past her and storming towards the trees, fully intent on leaving her stranded to wander for however long it took her to get her stupid, blonde head straightened out.

"Boone-" Shannon's voice called him from back by the rock.

"Not this time, Shannon." Boone whispered, letting his words hang with a weighty finality.

"No, Boone, I'm-" Shannon called out and Boone noticed, with some morbid enjoyment, that her voice had begun to sound upset. He knew that tone, it was the one he'd felt for the last ten years of his life. It was about time the tables were turned.

He couldn't resist the urge to throw back a final scathing comment as he turned around, "Now you know how it feels. It's hell, huh? Wait, what the?"

Shannon was on top of him, throwing him to the ground and then pinning his side there with agility Boone had never seen in her before.

"What the? What're you doing?" Boone yelled, but before he could hear anything from Shannon, she was thrown off him.

Flying backwards, her body connected to the rock with the sickening crunch of shattering bone. Something else flew right behind her, but it stopped short of hitting the rock, landing feet away from it.

It padded forward, a low rumbling shaking the ground. Boone scuttled backwards.

It was a polar bear; a huge, furious polar bear that hadn't noticed him yet. Crawling backwards he watched in horror as the creature stepped closer to the rock.

His mind was numb in shock. Every nerve in his brain snapped trying to fathom what had just happened.

If he'd been standing up when that polar bear had jumped in, he would've been snapped in half. After everything he'd just said, after almost leaving her alone in the forest she'd just… _saved his life_.

_Come on, come on!_ Boone's mind yelled as he felt around the ground. From what he could see in the dark, the polar bear would be next to her any second.

He had to help.

His right hand grasped a rock and clenched onto it as he stood and smashed it as hard as he could onto the back side of the animal.

"Come here, you big furry…bear!" He yelled at the polar bear, his blood pumping through his veins as his fingers stung, sending shivers up his arm, "Over here!" He smacked the rock against the beast again.

The bear's head swung around. Snarling, it turned around faster than Boone had ever imagined a thousand pound animal ever could. It lowered its head and began to snort at him and Boone suddenly wished he'd paid a lot more attention in sixth grade bio.

Backing away slowly, he held the rock between him and the slowly following creature. He could count almost every tooth outlined in the bear's mouth. Still shouting at it, he backed up, trying to take careful steps.

The bear followed cautiously at first, obviously confused at the attack. Soon, though, its mind came back to one thing, the deep hunger gnawing in the pits of its stomach. It picked up the pace.

Boone moved back faster, still holding the rock out in front of his body as a meager defense. If he didn't think of something soon, though, it'd be about as effective as a twig trying to dam a river.

He picked up speed, trying to get his distance from the bear, but it wasn't working. The creature matched his pace and then some.

Even as Boone began to run, one glance back showed the pounding pads of the animal easily stayed at his speed.

The faster he moved the less attention he gave to terrain. Tripping, he fell backwards and landed on his back, the bear's gaping jaws closing in. Boone covered his face with his arm and closed his eyes.

_It's over. Weird, I never would've thought it would end like this… I hope someone finds Shannon before the polar bear gets her too. _Boone thought in the kind of calm only impending death could bring. But as time passed, he slowly lowered his arm and looked over it hesitantly. Why wasn't he dead by now?

The bear was feet from him, but had started to back away fearfully.

Instead of growling, it began to whimper and yelp until it twisted its body around and lumbered off, still mewling and falling over just trying to get away from him.

Boone watched it leave and then took a deep breath before his mind finally started to recognize he was still alive.

_What the hell just happened?_ I _didn't scare it off. But if it wasn't me, then…_

Warily, Boone began to turn his head so he could look behind him. He almost caught a glimpse of something before something struck the back of his head and the jungle turned to blackness.


	8. Found

A/N: This is really kind of like part 2 of chapter seven, so it may or may not be short as well. Thanks to Bluenight, Setszuki, bwcheer, Taylor47, Evermore, mfkngst, Oreata, and Rockin' FluteTrumpet. You guys…hmm, I appear to have run out of ways to express your awesomeness. -Puts that on a to-do list-

There was nothing at first. Finally, the smallest of noises broke though the silence, a fuzzy dripping noise like a leak faucet. Little by little, Boone's head began to clear and a tingling sensation began to bring the feeling back to his body, which he quickly regretted. He had a pounding headache and it felt like half his body was damp, which made sense with the heavy mildew smell.

Groaning, he rolled onto his side as his sight slowly shifted back into focus. There was golden light on the wall, casting only meager circles of color against the black, curved cave he seemed to be in. The last thing he ever wanted to do again was sit up and he could just imagine the bruises spreading up his back and arms as he lay there. All he wanted to do was close his eyes again and drift off to sleep. Maybe he would wake up and find out it'd all been one long, horrible dream and he'd be safe back in his bed, or at least at one of the camps.

The room began to blur in his eyes again and had almost turned back to darkness when he heard a noise in the corner of the room. It sounded almost like a groan.

It was then things started coming back to him. The clearing, the bear, Shannon hitting the rock…

Oh God, what had happened to her?

"Shannon, Shannon, is that you?" Boone called towards the noise as loudly as he dared, pushing himself up and trying to sit, but his hands wouldn't move. Pulling hard, he felt something thick and rough scrape against his wrists, some kind of rope.

He froze and listened, but he didn't hear a voice. He had almost stopped breathing now just to catch the smallest sound. Finally, there was another faint noise and he strained his ears to catch as much of it as he could, "Boone? Yes…" The sound trailed off leaving just the dripping noise again.

Sighing, Boone started to breathe again. She was there and alive, at last something was looking up.

"Are you-" He paused, listening for voices and lowered his voice a little more, "Are you alright?"

There was another long pause.

"I'm- I'm not sure."

Boone shifted and tried to use his feet to push him up but found, without surprise, that the rope was around his ankles as well, "What do you mean _you're not sure_?"

"I just- it's-" She stopped.

"What, Shannon, _what_?" Boone hissed in frustration as he slowly rolled onto his side, "What's wrong?"

"I'm- it's bad, Boone."

The silence that followed her voice was suffocating.

Swallowing, Boone stopped moving, "What's _wrong_?" He repeated again, only they sounded like completely different words to his ears, words he could hardly say and knew he didn't want the answer to.

Almost as if she knew his thoughts, there was no answer.

Bending and pushing himself upwards with his elbows, he managed to get to his knees and slowly began to use his feet to slide himself over towards the direction of her voice, whispering the whole way, "Shannon, keep talking. I'll be over in a minute."

There were still no voices and the cave was so dark Boone doubted whether or not he was headed towards her at all anymore, "Come on, say something, anything! It's too dark to find you if you don't talk…" There was a tinge of desperation in his voice as he moved around the floor trying to find her.

Suddenly, there was light. Not enough to brighten the whole room, just barely enough for him to make out a body lying on the floor three feet to his right. Wiggling, stretching, and pushing, he slid across the floor to it as fast as he could.

"Shan? Shannon, are you alright?" He whispered, pushing himself up onto his knees as he knelt over her body. Her eyes were closed and from the limited light he could see her chest slightly rising and falling, but it was shallow and, as he leaned in closer, had a rattling, empty sound.

It was just too much for one day. The shaft, Locke, the bear, whatever the hell had hit him, and now Shannon. Not even the crash had thrown him so much, and now his brain had shut down. Rational thought, plans- hope… it was all dead to him now, just like he and Shannon were going to be, slowly dying in some God forsaken cave.

As everything slowly receded into the corners of his mind, for some reason there was one memory that stuck with him, even as he bent to the ground in despair.

He was eleven and Shannon had been nine and it had been a little over a year since the marriage. The house they lived in then, his mom's had a tree house in the backyard and Boone remembered spending almost every day up there during the summer. Shannon would beg and plead to be allowed up there with Boone and his friends, but being "cool" when you were eleven meant you just didn't let your little sister tag along.

It had been the fifth of July, he'd never forgotten that date, although nothing should have been particularly special about the day itself, and everything started out the same as it always had. Boone and the others had climbed up the slightly decrepit eight or nine foot ladder to the base of the tree house. It hadn't been replaced forever, but he didn't complain, as his mom had taken forever to agree to let him have a tree house in the first place. They had begun the day flipping through comic books or arguing about whatever kind of stupid eleven year old things he'd been into. Shannon had come out, as always, yelling and demanding they put down the ladder and let her up.

The then-Shannon argued differently then the now-Shannon though, almost on the opposite end of the spectrum. Given the chance, she'd physically fight for what she wanted and, more surprisingly, she was _good_ at it. Hence, the ladder was always raised after they got to the top, to hold back the wrath of the tiny, four-foot eleven girl who would, given the chance, kicked them all out.

Eventually she'd gone inside, of course, and Boone had decided to go to the pool to escape the heat with his friends, knowing full well that he was leaving Shannon alone with their old, senile nurse and vaguely remembering, but thinking nothing of, the fact that lately a couple of the upper rope rungs had shredded almost to the point of coming loose. It was obvious how stupid he'd been not to put two and two together afterwards, but then he just hadn't thought of it.

Boone could remember biking down the street by himself heading home and seeing the ambulance and fire truck parked outside his home, even his mom and step dad's cars were there. Voices were coming from the backyard, a bunch of them, and Boone knew as soon as he'd pushed open the gate what had happened, but one of the people standing there explained it to him anyway.

_Shannon went outside and tried to get up to that tree house and fell off the ladder, part of it broke off or something._ She broke her arm, her wrist in two places, had been out cold for thirty minutes.

As Boone sat with his mom in the emergency room, he'd almost been sick he'd felt so guilty. They hadn't known the full extent of the damage and Boone's step dad had been busy talking with her doctor.

It was then his mom had spoken, almost completely surprising him out of his own shame and fear as he realized she'd been watching him. She said something she'd always quote when Boone would have miserable days.

_The darkest hour is just before the dawn._

For some reason, even if he was only eleven, it was like the words had taken on a completely new meaning. And now, now that he'd hit one of the lowest points he could ever remember having, those were the only words that had stayed with his mind.

As if with that memory and the small sense of sane thought it gave back to him, he relaxed and the ropes around his feet seemed to slacken. In fact, it was almost like they'd loosened, but that couldn't have happened.

Throwing a look over his shoulder he saw the severed rope lying by his feet. His eyes shot around the room wildly looking for whatever had cut the ropes.

"He…hello?" He called into the darkness quietly, taking a deep breath, "Who's there?"

There was silence and Boone had begun to back away towards Shannon again when he heard a voice.

"Who're you?" Asked a feminine voice in front of him that sounded familiar, but he just couldn't place it, "Are you…are you one of them?"

"No," Boone replied hastily, "No, I'm…" He paused and bit back his words. What if _she_ was one of them? Did she just expect him to hand over his name like that?

"But if you're not them, than who are you? Are you one of…_me?_"

Boone raised an eyebrow suspiciously, "What do you mean 'one of you'?"

The voice fell silent again and Boone slowly began to try to work the ropes off his wrists without gaining her attention. He needed a plan, a way to get out of there with Shannon and get back to the others. The longer he could distract whoever, or whatever, she was, the better.

"I freed your legs, I can cut the rope around your wrists too."

Boone froze, blinking, and stiffened, "How do I know I can trust you?"

"We're both in the same cell, aren't we? If I was against you wouldn't I be out there?" She asked with a dry laugh.

The laugh flipped a switch in Boone's brain and he scanned the darkness, looking for the person it came from.

"Claire?"

He heard a sharp gasp and a small squeak from the corner of the room followed by patters and a hissed whisper from behind him, "_How do you know my name?_"

-

Kate dragged Charlie through the last line of trees into the clearing, both of them gasping for air as they looked around for Jack and Ethan in the moonlight that had suddenly flooded through a break in the clouds.

"What the bloody?" Charlie began, his voice trailing off as he got the full view of the clearing.

There was nothing there.

It looked like just another serene, empty jungle glade, as if it hadn't been touched by anything in the past year, let alone twenty minutes.

"It's alright, we'll find them. All I have to do is track their footprints, which should be somewhere around-" Kate paced and zigzagged back up the trail she'd taken to escape earlier, stopping right behind where she'd seen Jack, "Here."

Charlie followed and stopped next to her, looking down at the space she pointed too and then stooping down to scan it harder, "Kate, there's nothing here."

Kneeling down next to him, Kate searched the dirt, looking for the deep markings Jack had left with his shoe, the faintest sign of a print, anything at all that showed someone had been there. There was nothing.

Leaping up, she made wide circles around the area, mentally recounting every moment of the time she'd spent there as Charlie searched around the area they'd started.

"How could two people disappear into thin air?" Charlie mused as he ran his hand over the dirt where Kate claimed to have been lying earlier, "No blood, no signs of a scuffle, no footprints…There aren't even any boar prints through here."

"That doesn't make any sense!" Kate cried, slamming her toe into the dirt with frustration. They were running out of time _again_ and now Charlie probably thought she was loosing her mind.

"Um, Kate-"

Not to mention that their original mission, to bring back Claire, had left them yet another survivor short, Jack. If Ethan had Jack… she shuddered, she knew what Ethan was capable of.

"Kate-"

It was all her fault anyways; she should never have left them alone. Jack was a doctor, how could she have ever expected him to be able to defend himself?

"KATE!"

"_What,_ Charlie?" Kate snapped, turning to face him.

"Look down."

Kate glanced at the ground, "There's nothing there Charlie, thanks a lot for reminding me."

"Exactly." Charlie agreed, his eyes lighting up, "There's nothing there. You just kicked the ground so, logically, there _should_ be something there. You know, like a mark or something…"

Confused, she looked down again, "What?"

"Watch." Charlie jumped up and walked over to her, scraping one of his toes into the ground as he walked over to her with an odd limp. Kate concentrated on his foot, her eyes widening the closer he got.

It left no trail.

"But…how-what?" Kate marveled as she stooped down to look at the smooth dirt, "That's impossible."

"Isn't everything on this damned island?" Charlie asked, grinning, "Now, if what I'm thinking is right," Charlie began to walk the outskirts of the clearing, watching the jungle floor to his left, "than there should be…ah hah!"

"What?"

"I think I found a trail."


	9. The Black Rock

A/N: Sorry for the looonnnggg delay again. School has been _insane_ and at the moment I am down to one "free" (no work, youth group, extracurriculars, etc.) night a week, assuming I don't have homework overload (snort). This WILL get finished though, it will. Anywho, thanks to my awesome reviewers, suspencer, Setszuki, Oreata, Taylor47, Freckles-101, Eliza4892, mfkngst, and October Sky, you guys rock!

Her knife was at his throat now, the blade pressing threateningly deeper into his skin.

"Claire, it's Boone. Boone? From the caves?" He choked out, trying not to swallow and let the blade cut further into his throat. The knife wasn't moved and Boone's mind raced as he tried to figure out what had just happened.

How could she have forgotten _who she was_? Damn, he knew _nothing_ about amnesia, not even if that was what she had. Whatever it was, though, he had to fix it fast before finding a way out of that cave was the least of his worries.

"Look, there was a plane crash, _our_ plane crashed. We got stuck on this island and a couple weeks later you got kidnapped by some psychopath. Do you remember any of that?" He explained quickly, if not sympathetically, as his eyes darted up to try to see her face for signs of recognition. She was still quiet.

"Jack, Kate, Locke, and I are… were out looking for you. Well, Locke _was_ and then Shannon showed up and then this giant polar bear came out of nowhere and I think Locke was helping Ethan-" Boone rambled on quickly. How could he summarize anything that had happened those past few weeks? He could hardly even rationalize any of it to himself, let alone someone who couldn't remember any of it.

"You know about Ethan?" Claire demanded, "How can you know?"

"That bastard is the reason we're down here!" Boone asserted, glancing over at Shannon and then trying to look Claire in the eyes , "If I can't get out of here soon, my sister is going to die. We're both on the same side, what else do you need to know right now?"

There was a silent pause and Boone began to think for sure that he was finished. Closing his eyes, he waited for the blade to cut his throat and stiffened, but to his surprise, the knife lowered.

Claire moved in front of him and knelt down, setting her hand on his knee cautiously, whispering, "Do you really think we can get out of here?"

Taking deep breaths of relief, Boone glanced around the cavernous room, "I… I don't know. I haven't been in here long enough to see anything, but I'm sure we can." He added as he saw Claire's face fall, "Don't worry, okay? If you and me work together, we'll break out of here no problem. Alright?"

She nodded and then wobbled back to the small cot in the corner, then turned and walked three paces away from it. Boone hurried back over to Shannon and put the back of his hand on her cheek. It was still warm, they still had time…

As Boone looked up to see what Claire was doing, he raised an eyebrow to find her staring up at the ceiling above where she stood.

"What is it?" He asked curiously, hoping he wasn't about to find out another depth to Claire's already seemingly fleeting insanity.

"It's wet."

Boone shrugged, "Yeah, so?"

"It's particularly wet right here. I think," She sniffed, "There's a leak."

Jumping up, he positioned himself next to Claire and glanced up just as a large droplet of water hit him in the nose and he mused, "It was raining earlier…"

"Which means…" Claire began.

"We have a way out." Boone finished.

"Blood, that's all you found?"

"Honestly, Kate, it's a long site better than the whole of nothing we found back there." Charlie pointed out, stooping down by the muddy, thick puddle at his feet, "And you of all people should know a trail when you see one."

Raising his finger, he moved it above a long, thin scarlet trail running through the leaves and then pointed back towards where the trail suddenly vanished into the clearing.

"Someone came through those bushes, stopped right here, and then headed off…" He paused and stood, looking at the nearby fern leaves and then nodded into the forest, "That way."

Shaking her head, Kate frowned, "I circled around the rest of the clearing, nothing. But there has to be another trail, they can't both be together."

"Ah, but I am afraid you are mistaken, my friend." Charlie said, putting on his best Sherlock Holmes voice, "The blood pooled here, someone stopped. If I'm right-" He moved one of the ferns aside, revealing a double set of footprints, "One came through here before the other."

"But they both came through?"

"It would seem so, eh?" Charlie commented, letting a small grin spread over his face, "It looks like Jack, the lucky bastard, made it through again."

"So did Ethan." Kate added darkly before shouldering her pack, "Come on, let's go."

The pair headed off into the forest following the droplets of blood and footprints leading them, twisting and turning, through the trees. It was harder and harder to follow the further in they got as the moon became blocked out by leaves and clouds, but they moved on. Glancing up at the sky, Kate began to wonder if she'd ever get a chance to go back to the beach again. Stupid as it was, she was beginning to miss the, relative, calmness there.

Suddenly, Charlie's hand was on Kate's shoulder, "Erm, Kate?"

Turning back, she glanced at him as he stared off to the side, "Yeah?"

"I think we found it."

"Found _what_ Charlie? Jack?" She asked, stooping down to squint at the trail again. They had to be off course, there was no way the random zigzags of the trail could have led them anywhere.

"No."

"Then _what_?" She asked exasperatedly, standing to look to where Charlie was now pointing, off to their left as the clouds slid from across the moon again, sending silver light cascading over them.

For a convict who had been pretty sure she'd seen most things, the view in front of them now almost made her jaw drop.

"That is the biggest bloody rock I think I've ever seen in my life. It's like…a mountain or something." Charlie muttered.

"It's not like any mountain I've ever seen." Kate said, staring at the huge rock down in the valley ahead of them. Even in the moonlight it looked black and shadow less, almost as if it was a shadow itself. Nothing was growing on it, all the greenery stopped a good ten yards from the base of it and on the top, Kate could've sworn she saw something blinking, like a little red light.

"Is that a radio tower?"

Charlie nodded, "I think so."

"Where… are we?"

As they both stared in awe at the formation in front of them, Kate suddenly remembered why they'd gone all that way and started into the valley below them with Charlie following right behind her until they came to the bottom of the slope and stopped. It was like one of the swamps in horror movies, monotone and bleak, only without the water. Kate felt like it was almost sucking the color out of her and Charlie as they stepped down into it.

Kate shivered and Charlie frowned, glancing around at the huge, grey-green trees that now surrounded them and commented, trying to sound light, "Well, I certainly wouldn't want to build my summer home here."

Chuckling halfheartedly, she moved further along and pushed herself forward against every nerve in her body. The plants around them seemed to move and groan even without the breeze and Kate couldn't help but feel like she was being watched. Shrugging off the feeling, she started forward again.

"Psst, I think I found Ethan."

"What, Charlie?" Kate asked, but no reply followed. Turning around, she spun in a full circle, eyes scanning for Charlie who had disappeared from behind her. After a moment of panic, she spotted him edging his way near a clump of bushes, crouched and on edge as he leaned closer and closer, waving at Kate to be quiet.

He was just above the bushes now and as Kate began to relax again as nothing happened, a hand shot out from the bushes and grabbed Charlie's wrist, pulling him down as another hand shot over his mouth.

Sprinting over, Kate smashed the hand as hard as she could with her fist as Charlie watched in horror and took a step back.

"Kate, stop it!" He hissed.

"What- but, it's Ethan!" Kate hissed back in confusion.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you." Came a voice from the bush that pulled his hand back in and swore lightly as he stepped into sight.

"Jack!"


	10. The Edge

A/N: Again a delay. -.- Doh. Well, what can I say, school sucked and working still sucks. Anyway, Austin B, miss jasadin, CrAzYhOrSeGiRl88, Orlando-crazy, and October Sky, you guys rock, as always. Your reviews are awesome stuff and I love all of them to pieces! And yes, I _do_ love cliffhangers, probably more than is humanly healthy. How could you tell?

"Why the hell were you hiding from us in the bushes?" Kate snapped just before Charlie cut in.

"What happened to your shoulder?" He asked as Jack began to usher them away from the path and into the forest, "And why aren't you dead? Does that mean thesmarmy git's dead?" Charlie question eagerly, spitting out his new name for Ethan.

Kate glanced at Charlie and then to Jack's shoulder that was wrapped in stained, ripped cloth.

"I wasn't hiding from _you_, my shoulder's fine, and, well," Jack paused, glancing over his shoulder before gesturing for them to follow him, "Just trust me, the path is not the way you want to go."

Kate frowned, following, "Why, what's on the path?"

Charlie shook his head, "It's him, isn't it?"

Jack smiled ruefully, "Trust me, dealing with Ethan would be a cake walk compared to what's out there…"

"Oh, _delightful._" Charlie muttered

"What _is_ out there then, Jack?" Kate asked, loosing patience.

"I don't know. Now stay quiet, we have to get out of here."

It was only about five minutes later when Charlie stopped, "Wait, Jack, this isn't the right way. We're going away from the black rock. Isn't that where we need to go?"

Shaking his head, he continued forward as Charlie watched him hesitantly before following. Better to go together the wrong way for awhile than alone the right way.

------

"This is never going to work!" Claire sighed, sinking against the cave wall as Boon tried again to jump up to the opening off of the cot and for the hundredth time fell back to the ground, his hands grasping at air.

"It…has…to." Boon panted and pushed himself up to his feet, "We have got to get out of here. If I just had another couple inches I could make it."

"Then we have to try another way." She concluded with an attempt at sounding resolute, but he could hear how desperate she was, "What if…" She stood and walked around the opening thoughtfully, "What if you gave me a boost up there?"

Boone snorted, "And have you waiting up there for the first…whatever they are to come and grab you? No, thanks."

"Well, have you got any better ideas? I'm sorry if I don't want to sit around and wait for you to grow taller." She retorted and looked him in the eyes seriously, "I can do it. Just help me up there and I'll pull her," she gestured to Shannon, "up and then we can get you." Boone still looked unconvinced and Claire rolled her eyes, "Look, if you're really worried I won't climb out until I know if the coast is clear or not, alright?"

Hesitating, Boone finally nodded, "Fine."

With surprising speed for someone as pregnant as she was, she was perched on his knee, her head barely peeking out the top of the hole.

"Found anything?" He asked, looking up.

"Um, I suppose that depends on your definition of 'anything'…"

Boone groaned and began to lower her. He should have known that there would be at least a couple of them out there, whatever they were.

"No no no, stop!" Claire demanded, setting her hand on Boone's head to balance herself, "It looks safe enough but…well, you'll just have to see it for yourself. Now help me up."

He skeptically raised her again and she climbed out of the hole as Boone stood and waited for her to reappear. Finally, her head reappeared and she waved, glancing from side to side. Pulling up Shannon as gently as he could, he held her up to Claire who, with the help of Boone's pushing, pulled her up. Last up was Boone who, with a good deal of pulling and scrambling managed to reach the top and waited expectantly for the sunlight to pour over him. As he caught his breath and looked around, though, he noticed that although it was a little brighter, he was still in the darkness. Scanning the room, he noticed they were in some sort of wooden structure and, he didn't know if he was just imagining it, but the walls almost seemed to curve.

"Where are we?" Boone asked as he rose to his feet.

"I don't know." Claire answered from over by the corner of the room, "But there's a way out right here if we could just…" Her voice trailed off. Boone turned around and began to speak before being cut off by her waving hand as she gestured him over.

"Listen." She whispered and Boone did. At first he didn't hear anything, but then murmurs and voices began to drift through the small hole in the wood. Whatever it was, they didn't sound very nearby, so they still had time.

"We have to get out of here quick." Boone instructed in a low voice, "These boards seem loose, if we just…" Claire nodded.

"That's not an option."

Boone spun around and Claire stepped back at the new voice behind them spoke again and Boone caught an accent of some sort with the words, "They are closer than you think."

"Who are you?" Claire hissed, pushing herself back in the corner as Boone squinted into the darker corner of the room, but the woman didn't answer. For some reason, he felt like he should know who this was.

"Are you…that woman from the recording? You met Sayid."

_The one you aren't supposed to know about,_ he reminded himself. It hadn't been difficult to eavesdrop on that conversation as he and Locke had been preparing to leave. Fervently hoping that she _had_ met him, Boone took another step forward.

"We really need your help. If you know any other way out…"

"There's a break in the wood back this way large enough to crawl through. It doesn't matter, though, this is on Their side. It is crawling with them."

"So then what do we do?"

"You wait. Trust me."

Claire muttered, "Great."

------

"This is it." Jack said finally as they stopped. Kate glanced around, but all she saw was jungle around them with nothing in particular that made it any different than the one they'd been traveling through for the past half hour or so.

Pulling a long tube out of his backpack, he turned to Kate and Charlie and spoke quietly, "I want you to know what you're getting yourself into before I light this, so listen carefully. As soon as this flare goes up, we have to stay put as long as we can. When I give the signal we can run, and hopefully we'll have enough time to make it back to camp, but no guarantees. Alright?"

"No." Kate stated bluntly, "I refuse to just blindly follow whatever you say without knowing why we're doing it. Right Charlie?"

Charlie paused, looking fro Jack to Kate and back again, "Will it help Claire?"

"It should give her enough time to get away from them, assuming she can. If not, then it'll give them enough of a scare to give us the advantage. That's the plan anyway."

Charlie nodded, "Alright, I'm in."

Kate looked dumbstruck, but realized she shouldn't have been so surprised. She wouldn't agree as easily as him, however.

"You're both insane-"

"Look, no one's making you stay. If you want to, you can head right back up to the caves. I can't explain anything right now or-"

"Or _what_, Jack?" Kate questioned, holding back the disgust from her voice. She knew this behavior, being suspicious and domineering by pretending the other person wouldn't understand, it was so typical. She would have been perfectly happy leaving them both to get themselves pointlessly killed, or so she tried tot ell herself.

He opened his mouth to answer but suddenly a loud, mechanical rumbling echoed off in the distance ahead of them. Everyone watched the jungle cautiously until Jack finally turned back to face them again.

"_I can't explain_ _anything_ _right now_," He repeated, "because any minute now those things are going to notice us and if we don't light the flare we'll all die. Satisfied?"

Kate nodded, attempting to look indifferent and keep her heart from exploding out of her chest. Jack smiled wryly and passed the flare to Charlie and then pulled out a book of matches as Charlie attempted to set up the flare. Kate bent down next to him and propped it up with a rock as Jack joined them.

"Ready?" He asked and Charlie nodded. Kate hesitated, and then nodded too.

Taking a deep breath, he struck the match.


End file.
